Ferrari arrived at Monza with two superstar drivers on the second row, the soft tyres bolted on and a golden chance to attack. They left with accusations of fear, a furious Lewis Hamilton, and a very public question mark over who is actually in charge.
Peter Windsor did not bother sugar-coating it. In his post-race debrief, the veteran analyst pinned the opening-lap chaos squarely on Ferrari’s inability – or unwillingness – to control Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
“It’s all a result of Ferrari not having the discipline that they should have,” Windsor said, arguing that the team has tiptoed around its star pairing from the moment they were brought together. The issue, in his view, is simple: nobody on the pit wall wants to tell Hamilton or Leclerc what to do when it matters most.
A chance to attack – wasted in one corner
Hamilton and Leclerc lined up side by side on the second row at the Italian Grand Prix, both on the grippier soft compound. Ahead of them, George Russell and Pierre Gasly were more vulnerable on the mediums. On paper, it was the perfect launchpad for Ferrari to swarm the cars in front into Turn 1.
Instead, the red cars turned on each other.
Into the opening chicane, Hamilton dived to the inside of Leclerc. Rather than coordinating an attack on Russell and Gasly, the two Ferraris went wheel-to-wheel. Contact followed. Hamilton was bumped out onto the dirt, forced to take avoiding action and surrender several positions in the process.
The seven-time world champion was incensed. Over the radio and in his comments, he pushed for clear rules of engagement between himself and Leclerc, openly contrasting the situation with his Mercedes years, when team orders and first-corner protocols were laid down in black and white.
Windsor backed that stance. For him, the Monza flashpoint was not an isolated racing incident but the inevitable outcome of a structure that refuses to confront its own drivers.
“That’s arisen ever since you’ve got these two superstars in the cars,” he said. “Everybody on the pit wall at Ferrari is afraid to say to Lewis or to Charles, ‘This is what is going to happen at the first corner.’ They just won’t do it. What we saw was a classic example of no discipline in the team.”
He added that Leclerc appeared remorseful, while Hamilton was “very upset” – two emotions that do little to repair the damage once the positions are lost.
“Technically pushed off” – Windsor’s view of the clash
On the specifics of the incident, Windsor offered a nuanced breakdown. As the pair barrelled towards the right-left chicane, he felt Leclerc initially had the right to dictate the line.
By the time they reached the apex of the first right-hander, the Monegasque held a marginal edge. In “classic motor racing parlance,” as Windsor put it, it was Leclerc’s corner.
Hamilton, though, refused to back out. He stayed alongside, committed to the inside. At that moment, the available tarmac began to shrink.
“Lewis just stayed with it and came across on Charles, and Charles then started to use a bit more road,” Windsor explained. The squeeze left Hamilton with nowhere clean to go. To avoid heavier contact, he bounced onto the dirt, the two cars clashed, and Hamilton dropped three or four places.
“Lewis, of course, was livid and felt he had been pushed off,” Windsor said. “He technically had been pushed off, and there’s no doubt about it.”
No penalty, no team orders, but a very visible own goal.
Leclerc’s brief recovery and brutal end
Leclerc initially escaped the clash in better shape. He regrouped and climbed into second place, hinting at a recovery drive that might have softened the narrative.
It did not last.
Under pressure, he slipped back behind Gasly and Max Verstappen. Then came the decisive moment at the Parabolica. Defending from Oscar Piastri, Leclerc lost control and crashed heavily, his race ending in the barriers at one of Monza’s most iconic corners.
Hamilton, left to pick his way back through the pack after the first-lap drama, could do no better than sixth at the flag. On a day that had promised a coordinated assault on the front, Ferrari’s intra-team skirmish left Hamilton 76 points adrift of Kimi Antonelli in the standings.
The raw pace of the car, the atmosphere of Monza, the opportunity created by strategy – all of it was overshadowed by a familiar question.
If Ferrari cannot bring order to two of the most gifted drivers on the grid, how far can this partnership really go?
